If you get distracted, move back to the scripture passage and continue the cycle.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (NRSVA)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.

For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ. If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; if we are being consoled, it is for your consolation, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we are also suffering.

Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our consolation.

A Prayer: End with a formal prayer, such as the Lord's Prayer/Our Father

Today's Meditation

Desolation

This is not an exercise in wallowing in misery, rather it seeks to help us understand and profit from our times of emptiness and desolation.
Hopefully we can notice the links between the things that were happening in our life and our feelings.
Hopefully too, God will give us the gift of understanding how to avoid such periods of desolation in the future.

Begin by stilling and asking God to come with you and look back over your life.
Become aware of the times where there was a feeling of emptiness, joyless times, times of desolation.

Can you see know what brought you to such feelings?

What pattern do you see in these times?

What lessons can they teach you?

Can you see ways in which you have become a better person through your times of desolation?

what could you share with others about them?

Talk to Jesus about them. Give him chance to respond. What do you imagine he might want to share with you?

Review of Prayer

At the end of your prayer you can look back and ask:
Does it have something to say to you?
How does it make you feel?

Suggestions for Prayer

Take time to pray with today's reading;or you may like to ponder on the meditation.